Kentucky's Nick Mingione shares joke borne from delays to Baton Rouge Super Regional

The first game of the Baton Rouge Super Regional between Kentucky and LSU is finally underway after roughly seven hours of weather-induced delays. It started dragging on so long that Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione was getting guff from his own players.

Mingione relayed to the ESPN broadcast team how his players started calling him the Grim Reaper because he kept delivering bad news. All told, he and his players seemed in fairly good spirits about the whole ordeal.

“Well, for a while there they started calling me the Grim Reaper. I mean Ryan Hagenow would be like, ‘Coach.’ And he was looking at me and he’s like, ‘You’re the Grim Reaper.’ I’m like, ‘I’m just delivering a message.’ I mean, c’mon. But thankful that we’re playing. Long day at the ballpark of course. But glad we’re getting the game in.”

He might not have stayed glad for long, as LSU blew the game open soon after his interview with a bevy of home runs.

And facing LSU ace Paul Skenes, Kentucky was struggling to get much going. That hadn’t been the case the first time around when the two teams met, as Kentucky scored five runs on Skenes.

Speaking to the broadcast team in the third inning, Mingione said the Wildcats can’t waste opportunities when they get pitches to hit, as Skenes doesn’t offer many.

“Well, obviously he’s got electric stuff. I think he was pretty amped up in the first there. But we gotta do what we did last inning. We gotta get the leadoff guy on. And then depending on the personnel, we had a chance right there. Leadoff guy on and we had the count 2-0 in our favor. And you know, when you get your pitch, you gotta get it. He ain’t gonna give you many. So you gotta stay on the pitch you’re hunting. And when you get it, don’t miss it. Go get it,” Mingione said.

Unfortunately for Mingione, since his interview, the Wildcats haven’t managed to do much with what Skenes has offered. Through five innings, the Wildcats have just two hits on Skenes and gotten 56 pitches out of him.

It was a quick unraveling for Kentucky against LSU, thanks in part to Tommy White

LSU and head coach Jay Johnson went out and got Tommy White from North Carolina State in the transfer portal for moments like the one he delivered on Saturday night in the Baton Rouge Super Regional. With one swing of the bat, White changed the game.

The Tigers already had a 1-0 lead when White came to bat in the bottom of the third inning with a runner on first base. He got a pitch from Kentucky’s Zack Lee on the inner half of the plate and detonated it to left field.

“Dude can hit it a mile and he just did! Second jack for LSU and all the way out of the ballpark,” play-by-play announcer Tom Hart said.

TOMMY FREAKIN' TANKS!!#RoadToOmaha x 🎥 ESPNNEWS / @LSUbaseball pic.twitter.com/4FcLVV8KMw

— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 11, 2023

The home run parade didn’t stop with White — or that inning — for LSU.